The Liberty Series

by Regina Puckett

  Boy took the broom. “Thank you.”

  Shatter spat on the floor. “What you thanking me for? I ain’t done nothing yet.”

  “You wound me and didn’t let me die.” Boy pulled the broom up to his chest and stared at Shatter. The old man wasn’t as tidy as Father but Boy sensed there was some kindness in him even though Shatter covered it well with his crusty ways and bad English.

  Shatter eyed him through his gray, bushy eyebrows. “You’re a robot. You can’t die.” He spat again. “Don’t get all mushy on me. In these parts we help each other. You sweep the backroom and I’ll keep you wound. Besides, you ain’t been no trouble having around so far. Anyone else would have wanted some of my deer jerky. You’ll find out I ain’t much on sharing. It’s a good thing you ain’t alive. You won’t be bugging me for any of my food.”

  Boy didn’t move but slowly blinked. “My father told me I was alive.”

  “Well, your father was a crazy old coot. You ain’t nothing but a metal bucket held together with bolts, and if you don’t go sweep that storeroom I’ll take you apart and sell all of your pieces for scrap metal.”

  “But my father said…”

  “I don’t give a damn what your father said. Go on now and get out of my sight before I decide to go back on my word to Tinker to keep you safe until Liberty gets here.” Shatter motioned toward the back room again.

  Seeing there was nothing else for it, Boy dragged the broom behind him as he headed toward the storeroom. He hoped his sister was nicer than Shatter.

  As he entered the storeroom, Boy couldn’t help but think it as scary a place as the forest he’d had to go through to reach Shatters. It had taken him a day and a half to find the outpost, and he’d been on the verge of running down when he finally stumbled upon it. Even with his father’s directions he’d gotten lost several times. Boy had only managed to keep his courage up by studying all the new plant life and animals along the way. But nothing had stopped the fear from creeping in the moment it turned dark.

  The longer the trip took, the more Boy worried about winding down. What would happen to him then? Liberty would never know she’d had a brother, and if he had died in the deep woods, no one would have ever known he’d even been born.

  Boy was in the middle of the storeroom when he heard voices heading his way. He stopped and turned toward the doorway.

  “Before you head out I have one more thing for you to load.”

  “What? Everything’s already loaded.”

  The second voice sounded like a girl’s, but before Boy could consider this further, Shatter walked into the room.

  “You’ll have to come and see for yourself. He’s in the back, sweeping.” Shatter smiled at Boy but then looked back over his shoulder when a beautiful girl came in and stood behind him.

  Boy thought she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. He had never seen anyone with red hair before. Hers was wet, though, as if she’d just washed it or had been for a swim.

  Boy stood still and waited for her to notice him. When she finally did look his way, she just stared at him. It was getting dark in the room. Maybe she couldn’t see him. Would she mind if he asked her if he could touch her hair? She looked nice. Maybe she would let him. It was so pretty.

  Shatter motioned to him. “Come here, Boy.”

  Boy couldn’t understand why the moment he took a step forward the girl took a step back. Was she afraid of him? In that moment Boy missed his father more than ever. Nothing had been the same since his father had wound down.

  Shatter again motioned for Boy to come closer. “That’s his name, Boy.”

  Boy pulled the broom behind him as he inched forward.

  The girl backed out of the doorway. “I can’t take a robot. What the hell would I do with one?”

  This had to be his sister, Liberty. Boy couldn’t let her leave without him. “Please.”

  “What?”

  He held his hand out. “Please.” It was all he knew to say. Millions of other words bubbled to the surface but the only ones that managed to tumble out were, “My father’s dead. He told me you would be my sister.”

  They stared at each other for a long time. Boy saw the expression in her eyes soften and knew she was going to agree.

  “Okay.” She motioned for him to follow and headed out of the room, taking long strides, as if trying to get away from him.

  Boy’s heart sank, so afraid was he that he was going to get left behind. He didn’t even drop the broom but dragged it along behind him.

  Chapter Three

  Boy woke to Liberty turning the key in his back. He watched her face as she did so. It was unguarded and the kindness he saw gave him hope that maybe everything was going to be okay after all. He hadn’t been so certain the night before. She had threatened several times to throw him overboard if he didn’t stop asking so many questions. Not that he worried overly much because the longer he had watched and listened the more convinced he had become she was more full of bluster than heartlessness. Was it because she had to be stronger now that her father was dead? He’d had to be stronger since his own father’s death so it only seemed natural that she had to be too.

  “Good morning, Boy. What made you come to my room last night?” Liberty patted him on the head and stepped back.

  He tested his limbs before answering, “I was afraid of being alone.” Even though Father had told him time after time that he couldn’t die, how could he be sure? When he wound down he had no sense of what was happening in the world around him. Wasn’t that the same as being dead?

  Liberty went over and sat on the edge of the bed. She was clearly confused. “What do you know about being afraid? You’re a robot.”

  Why did everyone keep telling him he was a robot, as if he didn’t already know? Was being a robot a bad thing? Even though he was covered in metal instead of skin and couldn’t breathe, he had feelings.

  “I know all about feelings. I’m afraid one day I’ll wind down and no one will wind me back up. I loved my father. He created me and made certain I was always wound up, so I would never die.”

  “So you think winding down and dying are the same thing?” Liberty leaned forward and studied him, as if truly interested in his reply.

  What did she think when she looked at him? Boy hoped she saw the brother she’d always wanted because he saw the sister his father had promised him. She was everything he had wished for. Maybe one day she would love him like he loved her.

  “Isn’t it? Father wound down and never woke up.” Why couldn’t she understand that they were the same thing? He would no longer exist if he never woke up again.

  “I see your point.” Liberty reached over and grabbed her boots, slipping them on her feet. “I understand fear too. I feel it at least twenty times a day for one reason or another, but the one thing my father drilled into my head, for as long as I can remember, was never to give in to feeling love. He said love was too close to hate and that’s why the world is in the shape it is today. Without those two emotions, The Great War would never have been fought.”

  Father had told him about The Great War when he had downloaded the photos from the time before the world had dissolved into chaos. With those photos Boy now had a great responsibility to the world. His father had been given them to safeguard, and before him his father, and then his father before him. They had been their Keeper until it was time to pass the photos on to the next generation.

  Now he was the Keeper. Boy touched his chest. It was his job to show the rest of the world what had been lost because of hatred, so he understood why Liberty’s father had warned her about it, but not love. Love was beautiful. It gave him purpose. How could she not see that?

  “Did you not love your father?” She had to, because grief was still etched onto her otherwise perfect face.

  “I miss him.” Liberty looked at her hands before standing.

  She was putting an end to their conversation. Boy might not have been alive for very long but he understoo
d the subtleties of body language. Maybe it was still too early to talk about her father. He knew it hadn’t been that long since his death.

  He slid to the edge of the chair, stood and waited on Liberty. The last thing he wanted to do was get in her way. There was still a possibility she might even now throw him overboard.

  “Remind me to wind you up before I go to bed tonight. I can’t do anything to bring your father back, but I ‘ll do what I can to keep you from being afraid.” She turned and headed out of the cabin.

  Boy followed close on her heels. Her words had given him hope. They really were going to be a family. His father had been right to send him to Liberty. They needed each other. Maybe she didn’t know it yet, but he did.

  Chapter Four

  Boy loved the galley. It was filled with all kinds of objects he had never seen before. He opened every drawer and door in the room, picking up each and every object, trying to figure what they were for.

  He was holding a jar filled with a strange looking mush when Liberty giggled and coughed.

  “Sit down. I’m going to choke on my breakfast if you don’t.” She flicked a piece of half eaten apple off her shirt.

  He really wanted to know what was in the jar but didn’t want to push his luck. Boy placed it back in its cabinet and went over to the table, sitting in the chair across from Liberty. It wasn’t easy just to sit there and not ask all the questions brimming at his mouth. To keep from annoying her by chattering on too much he watched her chew on her apple.

  Finally, he could stand it no longer and blurted out, “I’ve never seen a real apple before. Of course I have photos of them in my files, but Father thought the trees were extinct.”

  Before answering, Liberty popped the rest of the apple into her mouth, core and all. “My father found a source on the upper east coast. We’re heading toward the coast now. We’ll stop first and trade for a load of dried fish, take that and trade it for cheese, then head farther north to swap the dried fish and cheese for apples, applesauce and cider. Our last stop before winter will be to trade for honey.”

  Boy didn’t know which thought to settle on first. They were heading to so many places. His father had told him about the ocean. He had it held in his photos but they were going to see the real thing. Would he get to see fish and dolphins, and whales too? Did they still exist? He hoped so. Boy had always wanted to go fishing with Father but he had never found the time to take him.

  “I didn’t know bees still existed.”

  Liberty closed her eyes and smiled. It was the first smile he had seen on her face. It lightened her entire expression, making her look so peaceful.

  She was still smiling when she reopened her eyes. “That is my favorite stop. It’s the most beautiful valley. There are wild flowers growing everywhere.” She popped the last couple of bites of cheese into her mouth and chewed.

  Boy just knew he was going to love stopping there too. Wild flowers and bees. That sounded so pretty. He couldn’t wait to see it.

  Liberty leaned forward, pressing her elbows onto the table top. “What do you mean you have photos? I’ve only seen a couple in all of my travels. I didn’t know others had survived The Great War.”

  Boy slide open the plate on his chest and revealed the pictures of what the world had looked like before The Great War. Seeing the dazed expression on Liberty’s face reminded him of the day his father had died. It was a hard day to remember. So many things had been thrust upon him that day. It had almost been too much to absorb: learning he was the new Keeper, realizing this would be the last day he would ever see his father again and trying to remember everything he’d wanted him to know before he was no longer there to tell him.

  These photos were the reason he couldn’t die. The future of the world depended on him to show them what would be lost if they failed to appreciate what they had. That thought made Boy only more afraid. What if he wasn’t up to the task? He was just a little robot and no one believed he was alive. If he couldn’t convince them of that then how would he ever convince them not to destroy the world again?

  Boy noticed tears running down Liberty’s face. “Why are you crying?” He reached over and traced a finger down her cheek. He knew what tears were but had never actually seen any before.

  Liberty leaned back, although she continued to stare at the photos flashing by on Boy’s chest. “So much has been lost.” She shook her head. “I never realized just how much until now.”

  She straightened her shoulders and finally met his eyes again. “How do you have these images?”

  Her eyes were green. Boy only realized this when she met his eyes with her own tear filled ones.

  “My father downloaded them into me when he knew he was dying. He was the Keeper. His father was the Keeper, and his father too, and his father before him. Father only had me to pass this honor down to, so now I’m the Keeper. Father never viewed them until the day he died. Do you know why?”

  Liberty bit her lip, and for a moment Boy didn’t think she would ask, but she finally shook her head.

  “He said he could never bear to see what the Great War had stolen from us. It was easier living in these hard times if he didn’t know about what could have been, if not for the hate and ignorance.” Boy slid the plate back across his chest, covering the screen so Liberty could no longer see the photos.

  Neither of them spoke for a long time. Boy thought over his words to her and for the first time felt pride instead of fear. His father had trusted him to be the Keeper. He couldn’t let him down.

  Boy nodded as he made a silent pact to himself to do whatever became necessary to keep the photos safe.

  He finally said, “These things shouldn’t be lost. Someone has to keep safe what we’ve lost, and what we can one day have again if we don’t give up.”

  She nodded and whispered, “That’s a great honor.”

  Indeed it was, and that was why he couldn’t die. Maybe Liberty would finally understand the fear he had of winding down and never waking up again. But then how could she not?

  Chapter Five

  Boy wanted to touch all the controls at the helm and on the friction engine – the engine really fascinated him. Where did that rapid whine come from? What would happen if he stuck his finger in?

  He held his fingers near the rotating wheels but then pulled them back when Liberty glared at him. The temptation to touch something ate at him. He finally put his hands behind his back and stood in place, staring at Liberty. Maybe if he stared long enough she would let him steer.

  “Stop staring and go do something useful.”

  Here was his chance. “I can steer. That’s useful.” He was too excited to blink. Boy crossed his fingers and waited.

  Liberty stared back at him now. What was she thinking? Was she going to throw him overboard or let him steer? That would just about be the best thing that could ever happened to him, steering, besides being born of course, and the day he became the Keeper, and the day he got his very own sister.

  “No. You don’t know how to operate an airship.”

  Here was something he could argue against. He had her now. “You could teach me.”

  Liberty sniffed and turned her nose up. “No.”

  The fact she hadn’t gotten up and thrown him overboard gave him even more hope. “Please.”

  She slapped the arm of the captain’s chair. “Damn it. I knew it. I told myself back at Shatters you were going to be as annoying as hell. I should have left you there, sweeping his storeroom.”

  Even though she was angry and he should have moved away, he stepped forward. “Why do you always say damn? Am I going to hell? Are you going to hell?” His father had told him about heaven and hell. What would happen if he went there? Was being annoying a good enough reason to send him to such a place because, if it was, he would try to be better.

  Liberty smacked her forehead with her palm. “I feel like I’m already in Hell, but that’s not why I say it. I curse because it makes me feel better. It’s like sh
ooting tiny, little poison darts out of my mouth. I picture them shooting into whatever pisses me off.”

  Boy quickly glanced around the base of the captain’s chair. He knew people pissed but had never seen it before. He was disappointed to see there was no urine anywhere, certainly not running down from the base of the chair. Maybe if he waited long enough she would.

  “Pisses? So you’re urinating while those darts are shooting?” Boy was too excited to move.

  “Whatever did I do to deserve you?” She tapped on the altimeter, as if too annoyed to look at him any longer.

  “Both of our fathers died.”

  That statement drew her attention back to him. Liberty gave the altimeter another forceful tap. “So what do you want to know about flying?”

  Boy stared at her, too excited to speak for the moment. Finally, he said, “Everything.”

  Liberty stood and motioned for him to climb into the captain’s chair. Once in place, she put his hands on the wheel. “Hold here and here, and please don’t get us killed.”

  Most of the day passed in a blur of excitement. Boy stayed at the helm, Liberty standing nearby, watching his every move. He wanted to stay there all night but a storm blew in, ruining his plans.

  “Go inside. I’ll keep watch tonight.” Liberty helped Boy out of the captain’s chair and waved him toward the cabin.

  “But I want to stay here with you. That’s what brothers and sisters do; they stick together through thick and thin.” While he stood waiting for an answer, raindrops plopped onto the deck and the top of his head.

  Liberty reached over and wiped them off his face. “Not tonight. I don’t know if you’re waterproof or not.” She patted his head. “Go on now. We’ll discuss the brother and sister thing tomorrow.”

  Boy wanted to argue but the expression on her face clearly said she wasn’t up to arguing. One of the things his father had taught him was that he needed to learn to pick and choose his battles. Maybe this was one of those times when he needed to walk away.